How do Gerda’s religious beliefs change during the course of the book? Why, during the final march through Czechoslovakia, does Gerda stop praying?

Has religion provided solace and strength to you during difficult times of your life?

What might be some consequences for giving up a religion you have believed in your entire life?

Gerda writes, “Why? Why did we walk like meek sheep to the slaughterhouse? Why did we not fight back?” (p. 89). What answer does she give? Does that answer seem sufficient to you? What other reasons might you give?

Gerda writes, “Throughout my years in the camps, and against insuperable odds, I knew of no one who committed suicide,” (p. 250). Why do you think these people, who suffered great loss and pain, did not resort to suicide, when many individuals take their lives for seemingly lesser reasons?

Gerda writes: “Survival is both an exalted privilege and a painful burden,” (p. 247). What does she mean by this? Do you agree?

29 Comments

Darryle Clott, Viterbo University, La Crosse, Wi
6. I agree with Gerda that survival is both an exalted privilege and a painful burden. She considers herself privileged that she survived when her entire family, except for an uncle, and all of her friends lost their lives during the Holocaust. She also considers it a painful burden to be a survivor, for with that privilege comes the great responsibility to tell the world what happened in order to prevent another Holocaust. It is not easy for Gerda to relive painful memories and yet she continues to do so. When I spoke with her last week, she repeated to me three times that she will continue to speak about the atrocities as long as she is able. At age 82, she continues to travel the world to promote social justice. Those of you who get to see Gerda in Battle Creek, MI, April 16th are most fortunate.

When Gerda asks, “Why? Why did we walk like meek sheep to the slaughterhouse? Why did we not fight back?” she gives the answer that they didn’t believe that people could be so inhuman. This answer seems sufficient to me because before the Holocaust the world had never seen people treated like that. The Jewish people weren’t mentally prepared for the things they witnessed and they must have been in disbelief towards the things that were occuring around them.

Mary Jane, Advanced Lit. 1st block
6. I totally agree with Gerda when she stated that “Survival is both an exalted privilege and a painful burden,” (p. 247). Sometimes when life is too hard to go on, death almost seems like a better alternate to choose, like an escape from the pain. It is a privilege though because some people are not strong enough to survive the burdens that we go through so we should feel privileged that we can survive. I can relate to this greatly because there have been times in my life where life was so hard that I did not want to go on. Actually living life was the hardest thing that I had to do. I wanted to go to sleep and not wake up again. Going to school and doing work was the hardest it had ever been and was an extreme burden for me. This occurred last year and was the hardest year of my life, but I survived and it was a privilege that I could, because some of the things that I went through, other people would not have been able to bare. The fact that I survived the hardest year of my life makes me feel extremely privileged because now the things that I am accomplishing are all the more rewarding. There cannot be sunshine without rain, and you cannot feel joy without feeling pain. I am feeling stronger and more powerful than I have ever felt in my life, and I thank God that he helped me through this. I would imagine Gerda, along with other jews that survived the horrific Holocaust, would feel the same way as I do.

Heather, 1st block Advanced Lit: I believe that the people who suffered great loss and pain during the Holocaust didn’t resort to suicide because “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.” The people who watched their loved ones die, in a way that was the strength they needed to keep moving on and to still have faith that a better way of life was on the way.

2. I have come face to face with many obstacles in my life, and I have found that religion has provided solace and strength as I overcame them. I won’t bore everyone with details, but I and most everyone I know has at some point put their hands together and asked the lord above “why me?”. And I’m sure that that question never left the minds of those who suffered in the holocaust. If I didn’t have my knowledge of Jesus Christ and how he, an innocent man, suffered beyond belief for me and my future, I might have not been able to get through a lot of troubles.

In regards to Danielle’sposting about being like sheep, I would think that at the camps the prisoners would have to figure out what was happeneing eventually. For instance in the book “Night”, Elie can smell the burning of the dead bodies, and i know that some of the prisoners had to do that work in the ovens. I agree with her that at first it would be incomprehensible to think that you had been brought to a camp to be killed, but wouldn’t you realize it sooner or later?

When Gerda writes, “Why? Why did we walk like meek sheep to the slaughterhouse? Why did we not fight back?”. She answers that they couldn’t imagine humans to be so inhuman.

The answer seems very sufficient to me because if I was a Jewish person living during the Holocaust, I wouldn’t be able to imagine humans just like me to be able to betray their own kind because of what they are. I wouldn’t be able to imagine someone to be cruel enough to slaughter people who had a Jewish background like pigs. Not in my wildest dreams would I be able to imagine someone who would starve me, belittle me and betray me when before the Holocaust these people were part of the community, neighbors and friends.

Before the Holocaust, the Jewish community were like any other people, maybe they were secretly scorn upon but they weren’t at all treated like they were. They were regular people. So, the fact that they didn’t fight back was because they had faith in humanity.

The only other reason I could give to why people would act that way towards other people is because they were afraid to not hate upon the Jewish community for if they did not they might be sent to the camps to be tortured for betraying the Nazi’s beliefs.

Jessica World At War LHS:
6. “ Survival is both an exalted privilege and a painful burden,” she means that it’s such an accomplishment to make it through all of the physical and mental torture that she had to deal with, but for her to survive and all the other people that didn’t live leaves her questioning why she survived and not the others, why she was able to carry on through the worst of the torture, and why she was given the strength to see the end of the war and not her friends and family.

4. Gerda ansered the why questions with humanity. She says that they had faith in humanity and that they just didn’t believe human beings could commit such crimes. Yes, this answer seem sufficient to me. The crimes that hapened during this time seem unbeleivable to me today. I am unsure how so many human beings could treat others that way. At the time nothing like the Holocaust had happened before and the Jewish people were not prepared for what was about to hppen to them. No one could have guessed what the Nazi party had in mind and what they were about to do. I think another reason that the Jewish didnt run is because they were scared. The Nazis had control at this time and I am sure they scared the people living in Germany. If I lived during this time, I am sure I would have been too scared to run for them or disobey them.
5. I think that these people didn’t resort to suicide because of their strong beliefs. These people were standing up for their religion. I think that they didn’t see giving up on life as an option. They realized they weren’t the only ones going through the pain and suffering and they had to be strong to help the others around them. If one person gave up then others around them might had through of that as the answer.

Gerda writes, “Throughout my years in the camps, and against insuperable odds, I knew of no one who committed suicide,” (p. 250). Why do you think these people, who suffered great loss and pain, did not resort to suicide, when many individuals take their lives for seemingly lesser reasons?
I think that the people who suffered great loss and pain didn’t resort to suicide because deep down in side they belived that this terrible event would be put to a stop somone would save us. Then there’s the thought you get of letting someone down like in Night when Elie and his father worked together not wanting to just give up and die that allowed both of them to make it through the had times because of the love that they had for each other. They knew if one of them died the other wouldn’t live much longer. In the movie One Survivor Remembers, Gerda was talking about the train car that she was told to shovel the the coal into the train car and she was standing on the train thinking about just how easy it could be to end her life by waitting for another train and simply jumpping infrount of it and giving up. Gerda then remembered the promise that she made to her father that she could never do somthing so low as commiting suicide and she made that promise with her father and stuck with it. Her relationship with her father was amazing if she could keep that promise with him after all of the pain she was put through. Right after I watched the movie our librarian asked me the question of how would you have put up with all of that pain and what would you have done? I told them I would have given up i would have jumped in frount of the train. I would have thought about the loss of everything losing family members 2 or 3 of her friends have died on the jurnay and the ladys powerfull heart kept her moving along she made it through the rough times. Gerda now is an amazing writter very well known and i think has earned respect from many students and teachers and i think is a wonderfull role model for anyone. My coach once told me when i was upset that there could all ways be somthing worse happining and to be thankfull for what i have. i dont know if there could be anything as bad as what she went through.

6. It’s very true that “survival is both an exalted privilege and a painful burden” (247). One of the first life concepts we learn is the reality of life and death. If we experience it firsthand with the death of a friend or family member/relative, it can be very overwhelming and painful to deal with. That life influenced your life in some way, shape, or form and without their presence it can be a lonely, heartachey

from Bill Younglove, California State University Long Beach: Regarding that “walking like meek sheep to the slaughterhouse,” I think of Elie Wiesel’s words, to the effect that when one looks at the armed might of the German army, the question about why there wasn’t more resistance might more correctly be: How is it that there was as much resistance as there was? How long did it take Poland to fall (There were 1,000,000 Nazi soldiers during that invasion.) France? The Netherlands? How long did it take the Allies to push back–and win? (The invasion at Normandy was the greatest/largest expeditionary force ever assembled up until that time.)

Gerda has her life greatly shaken, but even in the worst of times, she kept her religion. I think she must have felt that her religion was important, but her prayer stopped when other, more pressing issues took precedence. Giving up a religion through such pressing times seems like an enticing route, but it could be giving up a major part of one’s life.

Religion has not provided solace and strength in my life.

I think people may not have committed suicide because of their strong religious beliefs. The affluence of many European Jews before the war could also provide reason for holding on because they felt that they could regain their good standing in society. I do not think any people commit suicide for small reasons.

Gerda hadn’t necessarily given up on God, but she had given faith into people that she met and that saved her throughout the course of that march. She may have been to tired or sick to even think about what she would do that day, including praying, and I have to believe that Gerda was mainly focused on basic survival during that time. I recently went through a long and drawn out hardship where I questioned why God would do that to my family. My father had to stop working for about 8 months due to a serious back injury, and my mother has been in college for 3 years now, so there was no financial income besides disability in our household. I worked as hard as I could to make money to buy my brother and two sisters food to eat, and I often ate my meals at somebody else’s house, so as not to eat the food at home and save it for my siblings. I oftened wondered what we could have done to make God punish us this way, but I realized that he was just testing our faith. If I would have given up my religion during this ordeal, I would have given up my entire life’s sense of belonging. I think that Gerda would feel completely lost and alone if she gave up her religion.
-Branden, German 2

1) Gerda’s religious beliefs changed in that she didn’t think that praying was necessary at this point of the war. SHe depended on the random acts of kindness she was seeing in people. She started to believe living human beings will help her through this hard time in her life. The encouragment of others and the kindness of her peers helped her through this.

2) Religion has helped me through the hard times of my life. I think if maybe sometimes if I didn’t believe in God if maybe wouldn’t have gotten through some of the things that have happened in my life or around the world. Even though I don’t pray on a regular basis I resort back to God through the hard times and that is when my religion is the highest point in my life.

3) Some consequences about giving up a religion that you have believed in all her life is people might not support you like they did before. Your whole support base might change because very religious people want to hang out with people who are also very religious.

4) Her answer to this question is that they belived in humanity. I think this answer is sufficient enough because if I was ever in that position I would depend on the humanity and trust that people are human enough not to treat other humans like that.

5) I think that many people did not take their lives because they thought that they could get through the hard times. Also to an extent I would want to prove to myself that if I can get through this, I can get through anything. I also think that religion has a lot to do with it.

6) I think that she ment that be thankful that you are a live but then at the same time there are many painful experiences that life leads you to.

Charles P, German II, 2nd block:
Gerda kept her faith through deep hardship and change. Gerda stopped her prayers when she was too overcome by the events around her. Giving up a relgion you have had your entire life would be a deep change to the individual and their perpsective.
The victims of the concentration camps did not commit sucide for various possible reasons. Perhpaps pride, or a deep sense of faith helped them through the hardship.
Surival can be a burden when death is such an easy solution. It is up to the indidvidual to decide what to do in this situation.

Jaime Probol, German II
1. During the course of the book, Gerda holds strong to her religious beliefs. Which is awesome. Without her religion, it seems she would have nothing else to turn to for hope. Gerda puts her praying on hold in the final march through Czechslovakia. This is because the other events occuring were just overwhelming her.
2. My religion has helped me get through so many struggles in life. Without my faith, I would have nothing to guide me through this hectic world. I am very strong in my religion and I always will be. God has allowed amazing things to happen to me and my life. I get all of my strength with my religion right beside me, backing me up.
3. Giving up my religion would bring many consequences. I’m quite sure my life would change for the worst. I wouldn’t have anything to live for.. and I just wouldn’t be the same happy, satisfied person I am now. I would never give up my religion.
5. The people did not commit suicide in these camps because they were very strong willed. They were commited to surviving. Suicide should never be the answer, and they understood that, unlike some other people who leave this world for resolvable problems in their lives.

Kristen, Adv. Lit:
5. I believe the people didn’t commite suicide because they still had hope. They still thought there would be liberation and salvation for their lives. I also believe they were strong and brave and wouldn’t give up for anything. It also tells what kind of people they are for going through the most sinister of events, they believed there was still hope.

I truely believe that there comes a point in everyones life that they turn to God for help and strength. I think that religion plays a strong role in playing a part in who people are and what they act like. I think that when people look back and think about how much suffering Jesus went through for us it gives people strength to be able to overcome obstacles in life. Religion played a role in the Holocaust because many Jews believed in the lord and believed that he would help them through there battle for life. I truely believe that the lord is capable in great things and that if you believe in him that he will help you and guide you through anything just like he helped the many survivors through the Holocaust.

Ashlyn Harper Creek High School Adv. Lit
I truely believe that there comes a point in everyones life that they turn to God for help and strength. I think that religion plays a strong role in playing a part in who people are and what they act like. I think that when people look back and think about how much suffering Jesus went through for us it gives people strength to be able to overcome obstacles in life. Religion played a role in the Holocaust because many Jews believed in the lord and believed that he would help them through there battle for life. I truely believe that the lord is capable in great things and that if you believe in him that he will help you and guide you through anything just like he helped the many survivors through the Holocaust.

I agree that the people in the camps did not commit suicide because they were very strong-willed. The people had a strong sense of survival and believed that change and hardships could eventually be overcome. It talked a lot about having trust and knowing who to trust in the book. I think that during the holocaust, I would not be able to trust anyone and I cannot imagine what it would have been like to be in that situation.

Gerda stays with her religion, and I’m sure it helped her. She probably stopped praying just because she couldn’t pray anymore. Being tired and was overwhelmed.
Religion has helped me in a great deal over many years to get through some hard times. Religion is like a safety net, and it’s nice to have it there.
If religion is a big and important thing to your life, like mine, I don’t someone can just give it up. It might weaken over hard times but mine will never just go away. For a while I did think I gave it up, but in the back of my mind I still thought about it and I guess I could say I still prayed without thinking, especially during tough times. In the end I just went back to it and I doubt I’ll ever do that again.
Too much is assumed in people. “They wouldn’t do that” or “Nobody is capable of something that bad”. When in reality, they didn’t want to even think about it. People just assume too much.
It’s painful to keep going in a situation like that. But living is a big deal, because people have to believe it won’t be like that forever.

“Has religion provided solace and strength to you during difficult times of your life?”

I agree with Kiley from Lakeview when she says “If religion is a big and important thing in your life, like mine, I don’t think someone can just give it up.” I don’t think I could just stop believing one day even when times are tough. Believing is all the strength I need to stay strong when times get tough for me. My religion is the one thing I can turn to and know that it will always be there for me no matter what. I think Gerda was so tired and so worn out that she almost felt that there wasn’t a point to her praying anymore. But in the end, everything turned out okay for Gerda and now she probably feels more strongly for her religion than she ever has.

Gerda stopped praying during the war, although she still believed in God. I think she had religious doubts like why would God let her and her people die? Anyone would have doubts when the God they believe in has let a crisis as big as this happen. But although she had doubts I think her religion also kept her alive. Knowing that she would be in heaven if she died and knowing that she would be ok know matter what happened. For some reason everyone gives up on religion when they need it the most. Other people other only go to God when they are in trouble or dieing.

Jaime, German II
I agree with Molly. Religion is important in life, but some people tend to let go of it when the power is needed the most. They blame God for their misfortune and lose hope. This definitely isn’t right, but it does happen.

Jenna, 1st Block, Advanced Lit
Gerda stated, “Throughout my years in the camps, and against insuperable odds, I knew of one who committed suicide.” I believe that even though they were going through the hardest time of their life, they still had hope and they kept their faith. They believed that there was still a chance to be liberated. At times they felt that there was no possible way they were going to survive but they stayed strong because their whole life was becoming based on survival. If they gave up on life they felt they wouldn’t have accomplished anything. It’s almost like sports… when you know your team is down, you don’t just give up. You stay strong and fight it out to the end because no matter how bad you are losing, there is still a chance of winning. Gerda and all of the others that suffered great loss and pain didn’t give up, because they knew they still had a fighting chance.

I agree with Kylie and Heather. I don’t think Gerda gave up on her religion or even felt that God had turned His back on her. I think she was just in a state of mind where she couldn’t pray to God. The more she thought about the situation, even if it was to pray, the more it hurt. I don’t think it was that she had turned her back on God or religion, but that she could not bring herself to pray.